Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus

This is like Hollow Knight but more platforming and less RPG. Movement is actually superior in Bo, while it lacks some polish here and there and has some crazy difficulty spikes. Defininitely worth checking out while waiting for Silksong.

I really enjoy this game. The controls are more complex that most metroidvanias I've played, relying on lots or rapid input combos that can require a good bit of skill to pull off. That being said, its certainly forgiving enough to still be enjoyable at a casual level. Because almost every button on your controller is bound to some movement action, this game heavily punishes panic inputs, and a small downside is that the sheer amount of movement mechanics you need to learn can feel daunting and a little bloated at times. The art is probably the biggest highlight of the game, I love the character designs! The game fun to look at and includes some cool, albeit short, animated cutscenes that give it a lot of character. For the story, I don't like spoiling games in my reviews, so I gotta be vague, but it compliments the game well (if you're willing to read a few lore drops) and hits quite hard emotionally, especially the end. Last but not least, I need to mention the soundtrack, which is...

Criminally underrated metroidvania with a focus on platforming. Revolves around its jump reset mechanic. One of the most beautiful 2D games in recent memory. Japanese folklore art style with amazing lighting and color. One issue I had is with inputs getting eaten. Possibly something to do with vertical sync? I experimented with fullscreen window without vsync as opposed to exclusive with vsync and it might have helped. Other small mechanical gripes such as directional delay after state change, for example jumping off right wall while holding right with immediate dash will give you left dash. This sort of thing also happened after landing, for example immediate heal when landing would inconsistently register. I also noticed inconsistencies with grapple distance and grab distance during the spider boss especially- button icon would show onscreen but was unable to perform these actions consistently. Cleaning up the input and control problems would make this game an A. 85/100

Ori: Path of the Teal Lotus

Good 2D platformer.

diffacult but fun once you do beat whatever ur trying to do

It's a fun game with a Japanese theme. The bosses are challenging and require a certain level of skill.

such a beautiful game

Very charming and fun game the combat its fluid but simple But there are two negative aspects one of which are some bosses are much harder than some previous ones even after you get some upgrades but overall wasn't a game breaker for me. And for these who would the game has some options to make some parts of the game easier And second that the cloud save doesn't work great so when i was switching from PC to steam while items persisted some of the pathways were blocked, no idea whats with that.

I give a recommend in spite of my own issues with the game because it certainly is a good game. Rather short having beaten it within 11 hours in one sitting. I have come to understand that the game's greatest appeal is the platforming. The movement is polished and introduces many traversal mechanics that work in and must be employed tandem to beat the game. It is challenging and at times obtuse near the end. Now I found these platforming challenges personally grating and obnoxious but I ponder that this might just be a personal issue. If you are searching for a hollow knight like metroidvania game where the whole challenge lies in the platforming then by all means buy the game. You might enjoy it more than I did.